The Wombat is again frantically digging himself out a work-hole so deep he's about to fall through to the antipodes (or maybe the anti-antipodes, given that a Wombat is by definition antipodean in the first place), so another Bloomsday -- and another weekful of world events that cry out for the kind of dubiously valuable rantery we'd so love to contribute -- pass us by like a speeding Prius. Alas.
And now today's half-baked attempt to keep the illusion of life here alive...this week's quiz comes in late and shouldn't take you sharpies long at all. A quotable quote, a famous name, and you're done and back to the toting of barges, lifting of bales, and the inevitable alcho-legal consequences that follow.
"Twenty-five years ago I accepted the label 'pessimist' thoughtlessly without realising that it was going to be tied to my tail, as it were, in something the way that, to take an example from another art, Rachmaninoff's famous Prelude in C sharp minor was tied to him. No audience would allow him off the concert platform until he played it. Similarly critics have dug into my books until they could come up with something that looked hopeless. I can't think why. I don't feel hopeless myself."
Who said it? Bonus point: under what circumstances?
First correct answer to comments wins a rare downloadable ringtone version of Rush's "2112." Googlers will be drawn and quartered. Be strong and the answer will come to you like a pebble through the windshield of consciousness. One guess per comment, but comment as frequently as you like.
Posted by BT at June 17, 2005 12:07 PMGlum.
Context: Gulliver had just saved them from a sand crab.
Posted by: boxjam on June 17, 2005 12:58 PMGeorge Orwell. He was just about to get into a car with Albert Camus.
Posted by: boxjam on June 17, 2005 01:04 PMBil Keane, speaking at commencement for the Bright Horizons child learning center.
Posted by: Scott on June 17, 2005 01:40 PMHey, you should read 6/17's entry here:
http://manda-land.blogspot.com/
sound familiar?
Sorry I wasn't available for any earlier clue-age. I'll offer one hint: many people expected Graham Greene to be the one offering up some verbiage at this occasion, rather than this guy.
Ming, posting that URL is either a wildly oblique way of answering correctly, or a cautionary tale about the inverse relationship between most peoples' propensity to be annoyed and the likelihood that said annoyances will be entertaining to others when made into narrative. You might want to clear up your intentions there. Cautionary tales, after all, are appreciated, but won't result in your cell phone busting out "Temples of Syrinx" (and presumably giving Amanda WB another hilarious opportunity to vent her spleen).
Posted by: BT on June 17, 2005 11:14 PMSamuel Beckett, accepting Graham Greene's Oscar for "The African Queen".
Posted by: Scraps on June 18, 2005 03:46 AM"Dubiously valuable rantery" -- that's all.
Posted by: ming on June 18, 2005 09:24 AMWas this some variety of graduation ceremony?
Posted by: Gavin on June 21, 2005 02:36 AMKurt Vonnegut, hailing a cab.
Posted by: Jonathan on June 21, 2005 10:52 PMKevin Costner, in reflecting on Graham Greene's oscar nomination for Dances with Wolves.
Posted by: art on June 22, 2005 02:57 AMErma Bombeck, then?
Posted by: Scott on June 22, 2005 12:40 PMDo we have to clear the plate before we get another quiz?
Posted by: James on June 24, 2005 09:58 AMSo sorry I've been out of it on this, everyone. It's been a wildly busy time at work and in the evenings I've been pretty much too exhausted/busy to even look at the blog.
The answer is William Golding, from his Nobel Lecture in 1983.
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1983/golding-lecture.html
I'll try to post a new quiz later today...we'll see if I get there.